Post your favorite tools for personal and professional productivity here.
Table of Contents
Productivity Tools

Professional Development

Conferences

Study Abroad

Learn More About Productivity

Productivity Tools

- Create dynamic, non-linear presentations (similar to Prezi) with this flash-based tool (allows you to organize using layers like Photoshop)

- Cybersafety

- Photo effects

This another tool that allows you to set up text reminders and alerts for your classroom. This site is a little more complex than remind101 below but gives you access to more features such as getting input from RSS or Twitter and sending polls directly to phones by text without the need for a smartphone or a projector. This service can also be set up to send out text reminders from events on your google calandar. I'll include a tutorial here.-

darcoza

- Create PDFs for free (download the program, the select print, change the printer to CutePDF, and voila!)

- Printable CEO Series contains printable tracking sheets to improve productivity

- Save your bookmarks (a.k.a. "favorites") online & then access them from any computer

- Same as Delicious, but on steroids (allows highlighting and archiving of webpages, social interaction, etc.)

- Free online hosting and file sharing

- Propose a classroom project. Donors can donate to your cause

Dropbox

- Requires download

- Make coloring books and other interesting things from photos, save as JPEGs and use as illustrations for assignments or worksheets

- Design invitations and send them via e-mail. See who has RSVP'd

- Directory of RSS feeds to which you can subscribe

- Online fundraising . . . quickly create a webpage regarding the cause of your choice, send the link to associates, clients, family, and friends, and track your progress

- Flash drawing editor

- Very robust, online photo editing site

- "Write" on the PDFs you save

- Online fundraising: Solicit pledges, people pay via credit card or Paypal, but accounts are not charged until at least $1,000 is raised. Project does not have to be service-oriented

- Crowd-sourced funding for education

- Create diagrams, graphic organizers

- Make information come to you. Set up the alert and it searches the web and delivers updates to you

- Collaborate with other members of your department or school and easily share information without e-mail

Language Tools

- Search for only scholarly articles

This is a web 2.0 tool that allows you to link online services to automate online tasks that you don't want to perform manually. The service can be used to do a large variety of things including automatically posting to facebook, downloading images of yourself others upload, sending automatic tweets, checking the weather, checking RSS feeds, and combining your google calandar with all kinds of stuff. It's a very powerful tool in general but can be used for classroom applications as well. Check it out.-

darcoza

I've included a tutorial on how to use this to text homework reminders from your Google Calendar.

- Dress up photos with interesting frames and your own captions, then save and share

- Free screencasting (requires free download)

- Pull the audio from any YouTube video here

- - Free file conversion from one format to another

- Set up meetings, see a grid of people's availability

- Online notetaking application

Newsmap

- Online Stopwatch - Use this to monitor group work, to count down how much "English Break Time" is left, etc.

- You select the artist or genre and it generates a station that plays music similar to the style of the selected artist

- Allows you to link a file and send it without registration or software download.

- Search for songs, save them, and then make the playlist available to your students by giving them the direct link or embedding it into a wiki or website

- Create dynamic, non-linear presentations and concept maps (Storytelling with Prezi)

- Make a "to do" list, it helps you prioritize your tasks through a series of forced choices

- Input questions, it generates the QR codes for you

- This is a tool that allows you to set up text reminders for your classroom. It is fairly simple to use requiring only an account and having students sign up by texting the classes keyword to a number. Also supports scheduling so that you can plan the texts to be sent out at a future date.-

darcoza

- Edit existing rubrics or create your own

- Allows students to calculate accuracy, self-correction ratio, etc., when reading aloud

- Great PowerPoint tools for soliciting feedback from your audience (including several that integrate with Twitter)

- Upload documents to share with others

- Search for music videos

Send Tab URLs Firefox Extension

- Send Tab URLs - Send a list of links from open tabs to yourself or others in an e-mail message with this Firefox extension

- Similar to Divshare, but with an expiration time (from 30 minutes to 1 week). Super simple interface. Easy for technophobes.

- Hold videoconferences with colleagues from around the world for free

- Upload ppt presentations to share with others (Example: STARTALK: Developing Teacher Leaders)

- - Similar to Photoshop, but free & online

- Select specific segments from YouTube videos for viewing

- Find copyright safe photos for free that you can use in student projects as well as published or web-based materials

- Create a customizable search page using icons

- Use this generator to create a target diagram, then save and share

TeamViewer is a program that allows you to remote control another computer. This allows you to control your pc from a smart phone or tablet so that you can walk around the room during a presentation. It also allows you transfer files between computers or access files you forgot on your home or school computer from any other computer. Additionally it can be used as meeting software to allow you to video chat while showing your screen to up to 25 other computers which is good if you need to show the class how to do a new task or if you need to show someone how to do something from a distance. Its a very powerful free tool that you should play around with.-

darcoza

- Multiple choice test generator that scores the test and produces reports. Doesn't require login unless you want to save everything.

- Extremely simple interface. Simply browse for your file, type in the e-mail address of the recipient, and click Send!

- Show specific segments of YouTube videos

- Keep track of all your Facebook & Twitter feeds in one place

- A great tool for keeping up with the latest developments in your chosen fields

- Upload up to 500MB of video, then bookmark particular segments within it or allow others to comment on it

- Open source video player that will play almost anything

- Copy and paste a YouTube link into the window. It allows you to view the video on a plain white or black screen without ads or suggested videos at the end.

Webquest Generator

Wikispaces - Use a wiki to remove writer's block--allows you to make continual changes to your text, to move things around, and to keep a constant outline of the various sections of your writing in view via the navigation bar. If you cut a section, but think you might want to use it later? No problem--just make a "parts pile" page, paste the deleted section in, and find it later. Also removes the "Word crashed and I lost everything" phenomenon. Everything you type is captured in the history (as long as you save frequently), and you can always revert to a previous version of the paper if you change your mind midstream. GREAT for collaborative authoring as well.

- Build your own forms and generate reports

- Send large files to others using this service

- Free collaborative meeting software (requires download)

- Maintain an annotated, sharable research library with searchable, printable notes and reports

50 Open Source Tools That Replace Popular Education Apps